Marian Diamond teaches the children anatomy.by David Pescovitz ScienceMatters@Berkeley (California, USA)
April/May 2006
For the last four decades, UC Berkeley integrative biologist Marian Diamond has studied how the brains of rats are affected by enriched environments. In groundbreaking research, she quantified how good diet, stimulating games and objects, and, well, fun, spur the growth of better brains. Recently, Diamond has been applying what she learned in her laboratory to a group of people whose environment is anything but enriched: young orphans living in a Cambodian forest. The project is called Enrichment In Action.
"After forty years of research, I had gotten what I wanted from impoverished rat brains," says Diamond. "When I had the results of all these studies, I realized that now was the time to transfer all these data to help impoverished humans."
Diamond's original plan was to launch her Enrichment In Action program at a hospital in Siem Reap, Cambodia where landmine-injured children had recovered. The director of the hospital introduced Diamond to a child with bandaged legs who would have to remain in the bed for six weeks.
"In our animal studies, we showed the brain could be statistically decreased in four days with a lack of stimulation," Diamond says. "What would happen to his brain in six weeks?"
As it turned out, there were actually very few children injured by land mines in the area at the time, but there were many orphans. Several years ago, the hospital directed Diamond to the Wat Racha Sin Khon orphanage in the forest near the temple of Angkor Wat in northwestern Cambodia. Managed by monks, the orphanage had no electricity, running water, or septic change. Conditions were brutal for the children living there, aged 10 to 17.
Diamond's first step was to get the kids on a better diet. In studies in Africa and elsewhere, Diamond had determined that nerve cells in the brain depend on healthy diets to form the branches, called dendrites, that enable learning. The orphans' meals of fish and rice, with the rare vegetable, wouldn't do the trick. The researchers' first action was to provide the children with vitamins and mineral supplements. Since then, the children planted a vegetable garden and the children's diet, Diamond says, has greatly improved.
"Meanwhile, the kids line up to take their vitamins that are handed out each day by the older children," she says.
Since the middle of last century, UC Berkeley has pioneered rat studies where the impact of sensory stimuli on development is analyzed in controlled environments. Rats kept in roomy cages with a variety of toys and objects to play with are compared to animals alone in small cages. The studies have proven that interaction with learning games also increases the number of dendrites in the brain.
"Sure, the kids at the orphanage could play games with sticks and stones, but they really needed much more stimulating objects to change their brains," Diamond says.
On an early visit with the children, Diamond and her colleagues brought the visual perception game SET that is based solely on colors, numbers, and shapes. This was perfect as Diamond does not speak their native language of Khmer. Quickly, she says, the children began to play SET as well as the kids she worked with in Berkeley. After a series of other lessons in art and geography, Diamond realized that an appreciation of the human body could encourage the kids to better care for themselves.
"The cook at the hotel where I stayed would go to the butcher and pick up hearts, lungs, and kidneys for me to use to teach anatomy," she says.
As her first experience with the children drew to a close, Diamond asked them what they were most interested in learning. The answers were almost unanimously English and computer skills.
"The government pays for education through sixth grade, but after that the kids get nothing," Diamond says. "The boys become rice farmers, the girls become prostitutes or maybe get low-paying work like sewing. My purpose is to get them fluent enough in a skill so they can get good jobs."
Through donor support, Diamond was able to hire two Cambodian men she met during her first visit—one was her driver, the other her translator—to teach the children while she's back at Berkeley. With his salary from the project, one of the men is now also studying computer science at the local university.
He's also helping the children become computer literate. As of last year, the orphanage is now wirelessly online via two PCs and a laptop computer powered by car batteries. Recently, Diamond says, a nurse in London who had previously worked at the Angkar Hospital was surprised and delighted to receive an email from one of the kids she had met at the orphanage.
For Diamond, it's these little steps that bring her closer to her goal of developing an Enrichment In Action program that could be used by other orphanages and tailored to the specific needs of the children who live there.
"It's all within the culture of the Cambodian community that these children are now able to grow," Diamond says. "Ever since I was a young woman, I knew I didn't want my research to sit on a library shelf where only a handful of scientists would appreciate it. I always wanted to put it into action."
"After forty years of research, I had gotten what I wanted from impoverished rat brains," says Diamond. "When I had the results of all these studies, I realized that now was the time to transfer all these data to help impoverished humans."
Diamond's original plan was to launch her Enrichment In Action program at a hospital in Siem Reap, Cambodia where landmine-injured children had recovered. The director of the hospital introduced Diamond to a child with bandaged legs who would have to remain in the bed for six weeks.
"In our animal studies, we showed the brain could be statistically decreased in four days with a lack of stimulation," Diamond says. "What would happen to his brain in six weeks?"
As it turned out, there were actually very few children injured by land mines in the area at the time, but there were many orphans. Several years ago, the hospital directed Diamond to the Wat Racha Sin Khon orphanage in the forest near the temple of Angkor Wat in northwestern Cambodia. Managed by monks, the orphanage had no electricity, running water, or septic change. Conditions were brutal for the children living there, aged 10 to 17.
Diamond's first step was to get the kids on a better diet. In studies in Africa and elsewhere, Diamond had determined that nerve cells in the brain depend on healthy diets to form the branches, called dendrites, that enable learning. The orphans' meals of fish and rice, with the rare vegetable, wouldn't do the trick. The researchers' first action was to provide the children with vitamins and mineral supplements. Since then, the children planted a vegetable garden and the children's diet, Diamond says, has greatly improved.
"Meanwhile, the kids line up to take their vitamins that are handed out each day by the older children," she says.
Since the middle of last century, UC Berkeley has pioneered rat studies where the impact of sensory stimuli on development is analyzed in controlled environments. Rats kept in roomy cages with a variety of toys and objects to play with are compared to animals alone in small cages. The studies have proven that interaction with learning games also increases the number of dendrites in the brain.
"Sure, the kids at the orphanage could play games with sticks and stones, but they really needed much more stimulating objects to change their brains," Diamond says.
On an early visit with the children, Diamond and her colleagues brought the visual perception game SET that is based solely on colors, numbers, and shapes. This was perfect as Diamond does not speak their native language of Khmer. Quickly, she says, the children began to play SET as well as the kids she worked with in Berkeley. After a series of other lessons in art and geography, Diamond realized that an appreciation of the human body could encourage the kids to better care for themselves.
"The cook at the hotel where I stayed would go to the butcher and pick up hearts, lungs, and kidneys for me to use to teach anatomy," she says.
As her first experience with the children drew to a close, Diamond asked them what they were most interested in learning. The answers were almost unanimously English and computer skills.
"The government pays for education through sixth grade, but after that the kids get nothing," Diamond says. "The boys become rice farmers, the girls become prostitutes or maybe get low-paying work like sewing. My purpose is to get them fluent enough in a skill so they can get good jobs."
Through donor support, Diamond was able to hire two Cambodian men she met during her first visit—one was her driver, the other her translator—to teach the children while she's back at Berkeley. With his salary from the project, one of the men is now also studying computer science at the local university.
He's also helping the children become computer literate. As of last year, the orphanage is now wirelessly online via two PCs and a laptop computer powered by car batteries. Recently, Diamond says, a nurse in London who had previously worked at the Angkar Hospital was surprised and delighted to receive an email from one of the kids she had met at the orphanage.
For Diamond, it's these little steps that bring her closer to her goal of developing an Enrichment In Action program that could be used by other orphanages and tailored to the specific needs of the children who live there.
"It's all within the culture of the Cambodian community that these children are now able to grow," Diamond says. "Ever since I was a young woman, I knew I didn't want my research to sit on a library shelf where only a handful of scientists would appreciate it. I always wanted to put it into action."
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